Contractor of Nii Boi Town collapsed building blames curses, dynamite

Contractor of the collapsed six-storey building at Nii Boi Town, near Abeka Lapaz in Accra, Moses Abbey, has finally broken his silence about the controversy surrounding the building.

Mr. Abbey says he suspects foul play in the entire affair and believes there could be more to it than what Ghanaians have been told about the cause of the structure’s collapse.

Speaking in an interview yesterday on Peace FM, an Accra- based radio station, Mr. Abbey said he was surprised at the strange and bizarre circumstance under which the building, which was yet to be completed, collapsed, blaming it on curses or dynamite explosions.

According to him, it was not the first time he was putting up buildings for the owner of the Grand View Hotel.

He was the contractor who constructed the Kantamanto branch of the Grand View and Power Plaza hotels located at Kotobabi, both in Accra, for the same S.K.B. Omari, the owner of the hotel.

“When I think about it, I don’t understand it but I suspect foul play in the entire episode,” he noted.

Conspiracy Theory Mr. Abbey narrated that whenever he and his men went to the construction site to work, one woman by name, Madam Lartey, who shared a wall with the collapsed building, always came raining curses on them.

According to him, they reported the woman’s conduct to the Landlords Association in the area since it was becoming – unbearable.

The Public Relations Officer of the Association therefore wrote a letter inviting both parties to a meeting to resolve the issue.

But when the time came for the meeting, he claimed the woman failed to turn up and that when she was reached on phone, a certain Mr. Osei, whom he described as spokesman for Madam Lartey, told them point blank that they would not attend the meeting and that the building would collapse.

A day before the building collapsed (Wednesday around 8:30 am, Mr. Abbey narrated: “I was at the site when I saw Madam Lartey and her daughter approaching me. I thought they were going to say something but when they got there the daughter said the concrete the masons were mixing was draining into their house so I apologized to them.

“But the daughter [ of the lady], who spoke in Ga, said “We shall see how you guys will complete this building, and they left.”

Two hours later, the contractor said he was told that two “machomen” arrived at the construction site in a taxi claiming to be looking for work to do but were asked to come later.

After waiting for a while, Mr. Abbey said the ‘machomen’ left only for him to learn at dawn the following day that the building had collapsed.

In view of this, “I suspect there is more to it. My boss, Mr. S.K.B. Omari who likes quality products, supplied us with all the necessary materials we needed for the construction work.”

He was therefore suspicious that somebody or probably the supposed ‘machomen’ might have gone to plant dynamite in the building, leading to its collapse, “because my people at the hotel said they heard an explosion before the building collapsed.”